merrill - I think your entry here shows that you have absolutley no idea what you are talking about. It is obvious that you desire to make this a war between the classes. Get ove it. As long as there are people who are willing to work harder than others, there will always be people who have more. Get to work and you can be one of those folks too.

Tell me again why the paper shuffler at the top of the food chain deserves to make 100X more than the man or woman working the line and dripping their sweat on the conveyor belt? And that's not even talking about the hedge fund traders and Wall Street goons that make a million over the phone or their laptop while sipping a macchiato in the local barista shop.

It has already become a war between the classes. The rich have bought and paid for so many politicians it doesn't matter what happens. They would rather not pay a living wage to their workers, so they and their investors can get even more money. Companies try to get by on as few workers as possible, so the investors can get even richer. They make sure government helps them with this, and they try to get by without paying any taxes. Then they play the "pity the billionaire" game. They put "reality" shows on TV that make people admire the rich. They put up "celebrities" who have no talents, except they are heirs to vast fortunes. They make people like them, and make watchers think that someday they could be that rich.

The rich put out campaigns like getting rid of the estate tax. The poor and middle class buy into this stuff, even though they will never have enough net worth to have to pay this tax.

The rich put out the message that there will be a home sales tax to pay in the Affordable Care Act, even though that tax will only be paid on homes sold that realize over a $500,000 profit. The poor and middle class buy into this, even though their house, if they own one, isn't even worth close to $500,000, unlike their rich heroes. They are sure they are gong to make millions of dollars someday by flipping houses.

The rich put out the message that if they have to pay more taxes, they can't create jobs, but they have had huge tax cuts for a long time, and the only jobs they create are overseas.

And speaking of tax cuts, they got these during wartime, totally unheard of. Not only are their investments making them lots of money from the wars, they don't have to pay as much for the wars. Then they wave their faux patriotism, and the poor and middle class jump up and down and buy bumper stickers that say "Support the Troops", even though their rich heroes are trying to make sure they don't have to pay to support the troops.

The rich convince the poor and middle class that education is the key to being as rich as they are, even though the Walton's granddaughter paid others to do her college work, and many others have children who only want to party during their college days. But they want to get rid of state universities and turn them in to private universities. Their bought and paid for politicians have cut funding to education, so it makes it harder and harder for poor and middle class people to get ahead.

The rich convince the poor and middle class that if they just work harder they too can be just as rich, but there is only so much money. The rich are going to make sure they keep theirs. More and more people are waking up to the fact that the so called “upper class” has been waging war on them for a long time, and winning.

And since this is really long, I don’t expect any of the brain washed conservative posters will respond. It’s not the little sound bite they prefer.

Not the issue. Everyone knows that there will be wealthier people...whether they get that way by 'hard work' is debatable. No one wants to level out incomes among all people. but fairness in paying for our collective needs as well as in compensating the workers who actually do the work is the issue. You fail to realize that in this time hard work does NOT equate with greater earnings except in a very few cases. That 47% is working its butt off but wages have remained stagnant or diminished in the last 30 years while those at the top end make obscene amounts of money without making any sacrifice to pay for the wreck they caused.

Every time I looked over my shoulder and worried about what someone else was doing or making, I missed a sale. Focus on YOUR goals and objectives, funnel your energy into making yourself better rather than whining about someone else, and prosperity will come to you too!

I'm not talking about taxes I'm taking about spending and he can't stop.There is a lot of people that really need the government help I'm not talking about those people. They have trouble getting the help because of all the ones to lazy to work and just using the system.Sooner are later they have to do something the tax payer cannot keep picking up the tab for the people that need it and the people just looking for a free ride to.

If they cut spending where they REALLY need to cut spending you'd have a bunch of ticked off millionaires. They don't want their corporate welfare, farm subsidies and oil credits touched. Hell, just cut ALL of the tax credits, deductions, shelters and loopholes (and fine the heck out of them for tax evasion for any off shoring of their money) on anybody making over 250K a year and you'd go a LONG way toward "cutting spending".

Obama is willing to compromise and raise taxes on those making $400,000 or more. The tea people won't even compromise for those making a million and more. Their so called "plan" to get rid of deductions and tax credits never list which ones exactly. Obama is wanting to extend the Bush tax cuts to 98% of the country, yet your buddies want to protect those people who paid them to get into office.

You just don't get it. The conversation needs to revolve around what spending cuts need to be made before taxes are raised on ANYONE. No tax increase will make up for the rampant spending spree we have been on for decades and are seeming to continue. The government needs to show it can be responsible with the money it receives before it takes more.

The only solution long term is to let the damn cliff happen. Spending is cut (which is needed) and taxes are raised (which is needed long term). Both sides get what they really want and are pissed off at the same time.

Obama is talking cuts, but he is not going to cut Social Security, like the Republicans want. Their rich supporters haven't figured out enough ways to get rich from Social Security, so it must be changed. They can get rich off wars, that's why they want another war in the Middle East. We have to start paying for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars too. Those have all been paid for on credit. Did you invest in the industrial war machine? Then pay taxes on the money you made, and quit whining.

They will not be able to avoid it nor do I think they should. For ten years we danced to their tune, now it's time to pay the piper. Will it hurt the entire country? Damn right it will. But believe me, the next trip to the ballot box, people will know who to blame.
The era of the "old white male" politician is over. (At least in Washington. Can't say the same for Kansas. But the pendulum has started swinging back and the handwriting is on the wall.)

The fiscal cliff is a a "gift" resulting from the last debt ceiling crisis. The Republicans were vilians then because they risked the United States credit rating. Now they drag this fiscal cliff thing out to the last minute. Mostly because they are not willing to budge on the Bush tax cuts. A 3% tax increase on net income above 250k is not that burdensome. I repeat, the tax increase is only on net income above 250k. This amounts to $3,000 for every extra $100,000. Villains they are to drag this out like this. We are starting to recover.....now this. Villians.

Typical Democrat .... Not the way I see it. From my viewpoint I see it as the Republicans wanting to see failure for Obama, which translates also into America failing. This has an element of sabatoge. I will forever take the patriotism I see with a grain of salt. After all they are only patriotic to the Republican Party in reality. A second recession will be a consolation prize for them if we go off the cliff. I'm done with the Republican party.

I get tired of hearing that the fiscal cliff is a problem for us all. Yes, our taxes will increase, but so will the income to the Government. Is that what we want? We need to keep the recovery going AND we need to pay down our debt. But you can't do that on the backs of the Middle Class workers who are paying all they can or on the Senior Citizens who are on fixed incomes and cannot work.

We hear about the repubs saying that the welfare rolls include people who can work but don't-too lazy or whatever. Yes there are pretenders and there will always be those who take from the system. How do we stop that? We hire honest and dedicated social workers who visit every single family who claims they need welfare. Adjudicate whether or not they need it by observation and discussion with them. Cut it if they really don't qualify but if they do qualify, don't touch it. I am happy to pay my taxes for those who NEED it but not the others. We need to audit our spending and we will find so much graft that if we cut the graft we could keep another huge amout of money and save the raising of taxes. But we allow paying $100 for a tack hammer and $200 for a toilet seat. This is crazy and this must stop. We need HONEST people who will do the work without fail. Then and only then we can save money, use it where it is needed and not raise taxes on anyone.

Since the USA is already over $16,000,000,000,000 in debt, haven't we already fallen over the cliff? That translates to over $143,000 per citizen.
"Fiscal Cliff" could be the title of a Roadrunner cartoon. All the political pundits act like their the clever Roadrunner whose going to end up on top. Seems to me we're all Wiley Coyotes. We're wincing 'cause the bottoms going to hurt in some unimaginable way but that anvil.....oh God that anvils gonna hurt too. The Democrats and Republicans have been dishing us Acme products for years with the same ending yet we keep buying their stuff.

I was on a trip overseas also, and the people of the UK and France, and other European countries couldn't understand why the Repubs nominated Romney!!! They thought he was a loser and would take NATO to war against Iran. Also, the people of North Africa and the Middle East are happy because Obama works hard to alleviate their poverty. So you must have flown to Western Kansas.

He sure as hell didn't help when he could have. When the stimulus was passed, Sen. Charles Schumer (D) wanted a Made in USA clause for steel and equipment purchased for the projects it funded. Obama nixed this with his excuse being fearing a trade war with China.

Also, his jobs czar shipped thousands of jobs to China while CEO of GE... to the point where there are more GE employees in China than in the US by the time he left. The man Obama seems to worship, Warren Buffet, invested heavily in BYD, a Chinese car manufacturer and tried to bring them for sale in the United States. Buffet also has gone Wal-Mart style with Nebraska Furniture Mart putting small business out of business, selling cheap Chinese crap, and paying their employees and truck drivers paltry wages.

After the automotive bailout, you'll be hard pressed to find a vehicle made by the big three that would qualify as a domestic vehicle (75% or more made in USA and assembled here). To get that, you almost have to buy a Toyota. I bought a brand new Chevy Colorado in 2006 that was 85% made here and assembled in Louisiania. Now they are barely 60%. You go to a GM lot, good luck getting out of the 60's. He could have demanded that the automakers invest in the US with the taxpayer money they received and make quality domestic cars instead of demanding the taxpayer subsidized Volt (costs twice as much to make than what it sells for and nowhere near qualifies as a domestic car).

No, Obama didn't cause the sellout to China, but he has stood by and let it continue. Its like someone watch a murder happen when they had the opportunity to interviene.

Let's see, there was a bill in Congress last year to give tax incentives to companies who brought back jobs to the US, that was being pushed by the Obama administration. Did it pass through the Tea Party Republicans? No way. The party of no, no way, no how. They could care less about you. They are only worried about the rich people who put them in office, so they can continue to get more money from them. And don't try to convince me that you are part of the 1%, they don't spend their time posting on a website. They have their brainwashed to do that. I'm sure you think you are going to be really rich some day, and people will make a realty TV show about you, and you'll be in all the tabloids. Keep dreaming.

I am sorry but your information is totally wrong. It was Bush, GW, that brought the national debt up so high because of two wars. Remember them? He didn't have the funds to pay for them so he charged it on our credit card and raised the debt to $12 trillion. Obama raised it to $16 trillion. So look it up, google it or what ever but get your facts straight!!!!

If a compromise is not made before the end of the year more tax dollars will be inputted into the government. The money should lower the debt??? Unfortunately, that is not what is going to happen. Taxes will raise, unemployment will increase, the debt may drop a little and the rich will continue to move jobs overseas and use the fiscal cliff as an excuse.
America needs a plan to lower the debt, overcome the fiscal cliff, decrease unemployment to generate more taxes, and use the revenue to improve our economic stablity in the world.
How that is going to happen is anyone's guess!!
The President can't come up with good ideas all by himself! The republicans only find ways to go against the President's ideas with the hope that the trickle down theory will be used as a last resort.
The Bush's and Reagans, pushed the trickle down theory/supply side economics down Americas throat and caused this massive debt.
One solution is to put all the options to a national vote and let everyone have a say in the decision.

If the cliff stalls the economic recovery or pushes us back into a recession, the increased tax revenues may be off-set by higher unemployment and thus lower tax revenues. This is what has been tried in Greece and Spain and it has backfired on them.

I cannot believe that a 3% increase on income above 250k is te sticking point. This is not that burdensome if you make that much.

This is a lame duck Congress. How much of this is a high hearty bird from the people defeated in the last election? They already proved they were willing to destroy the country simply to make Obama a one termer. They failed. Are they now going to destroy us anyway out of retaliation for their rejection? They brought this country to the very brink in an attempt to destroy the president. They used bully tactics and fear mongering and threats to try and force the election. Instead, they've annihilated their own party.
This Congress is already going down in history as the worst since the founding of this country 135 years ago. Instead of renewing the Violence Against Women Act, they voted to repeal the ACA. Instead of dealing with the "fiscal cliff", they voted to repeal the ACA. Instead of renewing farm subsidies (which really are needed), they voted to repeal the ACA. The US House voted to repeal the ACA over THIRTY TIMES, an average of once per week (and sometimes twice) while Congress was in session. In the meantime, the Republican party mounted more filibusters in this session than in all other Congressional sessions combined since the inception of the country. Getting the picture?
There is now less than 24 hours for Congress to deal with the "fiscal cliff" and they aren't going to do it. Some have already packed up and gone home. It's going to destroy the GOP. The best that can be said for it is that they will at least go down in spectacular flames. Enjoy the show, because that's the only thing they will leave to entertain us..